Ideal for: occasionally transferring small files and moving lo-res images and documents around.Ģ008 saw the production of the SuperSpeed USB 3.0: with a maximum data transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second, it offered a theoretical speed increase of more than ten times the USB 2.0 rate. Many USB 2.0 flash drives are available at incredibly low prices - 8 GB flash drives are typically sold for under $10, while 4 GB flash drives are found for as little as $5. USB 2.0 ports are easily distinguishable by their gray colour.

Different USB devices will have their own maximum transfer rates, subject to their own limitations and transfer 'bottlenecks' – for example, USB drives are typically limited by their flash memory speeds.Īrriving on the market back at the turn of the millennium, USB 2.0 offers High-Speed transfer rates of up to 480 megabits per second – an incredible improvement over 1996's first official definition of USB 1.0, which offered a Low-Speed transfer rate of a measly 1.5 Mbits/s and a Full-Speed channel of only 12 Mbits/s. It is important to note, however, that these are theoretical maximum rates – the fastest possible transmission of data available to the USB port. Two of the most common connectors are the USB 2.0 and the USB 3.0 – each offering different transfer speeds. As a standard, it defines the maximum signalling speeds available for devices to communicate with one another, transferring data across USB ports and cables. The last decade or so has seen the Universal Serial Bus (USB) emerge as the industry standard interface for connecting any number of hardware and devices to a computer – be it a mouse, keyboard, camera, external hard drive, scanner, or printer.

Usb 2 vs usb 3 what they look like